This is a somewhat unique book. Plague and Cholera belongs to the almost extinct genre of fictionalised biography. Its protagonist Alexandre Yersin is remembered as the discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague.

SALMONELLA, a harmful bacteria, is one of the biggest causes of food contamination and food-borne diseases in the world. Conventional methods to detect Salmonella in food are complicated and time consuming.

MILLIONS visit Haridwar and Rishikesh every year to take a dip in the Ganga. This leads to an overlaoding of waste treatment facilities and causes the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes in the region, particularly in May and June, say researchers from Newcastle University, UK, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.